Arkansas AG: Cordray “Poster Boy” For Bad Bureaucrat Behavior

As Richard Cordray continues to use the CFPB as a vehicle to advance his political ambitions, one AG is calling him out.

In a Daily Caller op-ed, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge took Cordray to task for caring more about his “own jobs and ambitions than our nation’s economic well-being,” and called on him to be fired for the “disrespect, manipulation, and utter destruction,” that he’s caused:

Americans disagree on how much government is too much. That is not surprising; we live in a diverse country. But, a common thread – that links us all – is fairness. We expect it, and when it is taken away, we fight back. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created to protect Americans, but it’s structural flaws and blatantly ambitious leader doomed it from Day One.

A recent poll revealed 75 percent of Americans surveyed believe financial regulators, like Richard Cordray – Director of the CFPB, care more about their own jobs and ambitions than our nation’s economic well-being. Mr. Cordray leads a massive – and growing – federal bureaucracy that reports to no one. Not to a board, not to the President of the United States, and certainly not to the American people.

Mr. Cordray and his lawyers have been chastised by multiple federal judges for their “blatant disregard” for the rule of law. This is precisely why a three-judge panel ruled that the CFPB’s structure is unconstitutional. That ruling would give most in Mr. Cordray’s position reason to recalibrate.

Instead of exercising caution, Mr. Cordray has become the poster child for bureaucrats behaving badly. He has irreversibly tainted what was designed to be a fiercely independent regulatory agency, exempt from Congressional budget influences and civil service pay scales. This independence was supposed to be a strength. Instead, it allowed Mr. Cordray to set his own set of rules, accountable to no one.